#i think i'm just holding glee to too high of a standard tbh

[moonmoonthecrabking]

thinking about how (canonically) the religious characters and the queer characters in glee were entirely separate. the closest we really have is santana with her abuela but even then the religious aspect isn't a struggle for her (i do think that canonically she isn't religious based on her "i don't agree with all your beliefs either" on the wedding episode but from what i've heard it's a struggle for non-religious people to accept their own sexuality if they're from religious households). i'm surprised by this because ryan murphy is a gay man who was raised catholic? and he didn't discuss that in conservative small town ohio that would be an element of struggle for the four (again, canonical) queer characters in his show?

[tuiyla]

this is a random question lol, but what are your thoughts on "Old Dog, New Tricks" and Chris Colfer as a writer (based on it)?

We love random questions around here!

Gonna be honest with you, I haven't seen that episode in full in over two years and it's gonna be another year before I get to it on my rewatch at this rate, so unfortunately I don't think I can go into a ton of detail. As in, a full analysis of Chris as a writer. But dw I won't just leave it at that I do have some thoughts.

I recently heard 5x19 be referred to as a low-rated and badly received episode, which I found curious. I'm not sure by what metric that is but especially by standards of that era of the show I consider it to be quite solid. I don't have strong feelings about the main plots of the nursing home play and the dogs as like, a base concept. Most things depend on execution and it was executed well enough. I wonder what parameters he was given, what could happen what couldn't, but as far as penultimate episodes of seasons go it's pretty much your standard slice of life stakes-wise.

What I can talk about more in-depth and what directly related to Chris as a writer is the character moments he included. At the very least and off the top of my head, there are 3-4 great character moments that tell me Chris paid attention to this cast of characters and took care to keep whatever shred of continuity Glee was still hanging onto at that point. Frankly, Chris seems to have cared more for these characters than the actual writers' room did in these late seasons.

What I'm talking about in particular are these details:

Kurt, obviously. It's understandable that Chris wrote an episode with a major Kurt plot and it was a breath of fresh air to focus on him separate from the main group, even if only for a beat. Two standout moments are a) him standing up to/calling out Rachel, which actually leads somewhere unlike it often does in NYC. See my second bullet point. And b), even more importantly and in a detail that so often lacks from the series, Kurt talking about his mother to Maggie's daughter. Such a small scene in the grand scheme of things but very poignant and the one I remember the most from this episode (sans Santana). That moment really made me go "oh Chris gets Kurt." He cares about this character enough to pay attention to this, imo, crucial detail.

Rachel's is a smaller one but also on two fronts, one on the Kurt of it all and like I said in the way that she actually goes to support him and concedes to be a more supportive friend. This is a lesson Rachel learns a lot but this is among the better executions of it. And the second is her general arc of at least trying to do good things because they're good and not just for optics. Shame this sentiment is limited to this one episode.

Santana! Of course, my beloved. Chris Colfer singlehandedly gave me PR Santana, who I hold onto dearly and fight in the name of, against all the lawyer Santana stuff. It was a great direction for her character to take and I'm grateful Chris gave us this, even if we never hear from PR Santana again. More thoughts on PR Santana here. The Pezberry shenanigans are also great. And we have a detail here, too, with the brilliant Santana line "in high school ... I was voted best shoulder to cry on and most likely to poison someone", which tells me that Chris gets Santana, too. Love that. God the feels I have about that line lol.

I also have to shout out the Sam stuff, maybe not in general because frankly I don't remember but at least one detail. Chris seemed to be the only writer to remember season 2 Sam and the way he was working hard to protect and support his family, and the impact that must have had on him. Later seasons lean into Sam the himbo, but, tbh, not in a way I find particularly charming just because they really emphasize his... carelessness, I guess. His immaturity, that's a better word. So he's not the himbo from season 2 but someone a lot less capable and more of a caricature version than he used to be, and that's not the direction in which it should go. BUT, that said, Chris takes the time to examine this with Sam and takes care to remember how Sam had to grow up too quickly, how he did have to be mature before. I don't think it goes anywhere but that's on Glee much more than it is on one-off episode writer Chris Colfer.

Writing characters well has been my primary focus for as long as I have been looking at media critically and Chris Colfer succeeded on that front for sure. These are the main things I remember from the episode and the main aspects of it that make me look back on Chris' writing fondly.

I've been meaning to check out Chris' books or just anything from him as a writer because I am curious. In interviews, he's always so quick-witted and good with words. The main thing, apart from Old Dogs, that I think about in terms of Chris as a writer is his Variety tribute piece to Naya. It's not only a heartwarming (and -wrenching) piece but damn you can tell the man's a writer. A good one, at that. He just has that instinct, based on this piece. Where the words flow and the arc of what he's saying makes sense on a deeper level. So yeah I'm curious, and maybe I'll rewatch Old Dogs earlier than planned just to view it from that perspective this time around.

[the-so-called-finchel]

I'm tryna be better at writing Finn - what are your favourite Finn moments in the entire series that show his personality the best? Or just your favourite Finn moments in general.

I literally love all of his moments in the series. I'm kinda blurry with episodes titles especially when it comes to s3 and s4... but I'll try:

Pilot - this is a good episode that introduces us to Finn and his aspirations and some of his fears.

Showmance - continues to develop Finn and we see what he wants to be. He looks up to Rachel because she speaks her mind and isn't afraid to be who she is.

Aca-fellas - or the introduction to Sassy!Finn.

The Rhodes Not Taken - this is a very good Finchel episode in general, but it also shows us Finn going against his moral values to get what he thinks he wants. We do see that Finn holds himself to a different standard than he holds other people. Like if Rachel played him the way he did her, he wouldn't be happy or willing to forgive her as easily. But it's also the episode where he confirms he likes Rachel and wants to be with her.

Vitamin D - this is a very Finn-centric episode. We get to see a lot of his inner thoughts and his pressures and the way he views life. So this is very helpful to watch for the entire episode. Oh and we get to see whiny!Finn. I love him.

Mattress - we see Finn wanting to do the right thing by being in the picture but chickening out (ha!) because he's still worried about his image. He wants to be a leader, but he's not ready to put himself out there.

Sectionals - we get to see Finn fully step into his leader position in this episode. He's hurt by what Quinn (🤢) and Puck did to him, but in the end he puts all that aside because he has to be there for his team. Even though everyone on his team, except for Rachel, knew the truth but decided to lie to him. Tbh idk why Finn was friends with anyone but Rachel. They all sucked so much and were so horrible to him. But anyway, and we see Finn bringing his team together and saving them out of their slump. Like we really see that Finn is the leader of the club.

Hell-O - this shows Finn in a negative light but that is good too. He's kinda back to being concerned about his image and he's probably experiencing the high of winning Sectionals (we'll see douchey!Finn show up again in Silly Love Songs after another win too) so he thinks he's such a stud and that he can do so much better than just Rachel. And the important thing about Finn in this episode is him coming to the conclusion that he doesn't want to do better than just Rachel. That Rachel is actually way better than those bitchy popular girls and she's the one that he wants (😏).

Funk - because we see Finn just breaking the law because someone wronged Rachel (we see him doing this again in Feud in s4).

Journey to Regionals (or whatever it's called) - because he just tells Rachel that he loves her. He also has that conversation with her on the staircase that he needed her to be a leader with him for the club. That was a good talk.

Grilled Cheesus - we see Finn's innocent and naive side, which is very important to his character.

Rocky Horror Glee Show - because we see Finn dealing with his body image issues and that's not something we really get to see about male characters. And we do get Rachel telling him that he doesn't have to be super fit or muscular to be attractive and that's important.

Christmas S2 episode - this is peak whiny!Finn!! It's such a painful episode for Finchel, but Finn went full Mariah in this episode and it's great. Like Rachel decorated the auditorium to look like a winter wonderland and Finn was like "I only like real Christmas trees!" I died xD he actually expected her to drag in real trees for him. He's too funny. Finn was like "if she doesn't kill an entire forest for you, is it even love?" Oh and him looking at Rach longingly at the end of the episode and smiling.

Silly Love Songs - we see Finn as a hot mess in this episode. Douchey!Finn is back after he won the game and he does all the wrong things this episode and acts like a tool, which I used to hate, but it's actually very hilarious and a good side to his character because he is a teenager after all. I also like the scene with him and Rachel at the nurse office because you can see that he still loves her the most but he's just a self-destructive dumbass. Him and Santana shared one brain cell that episode and they couldn't decide which one of them should keep it during the episode. So they were both terrible with decisions.

Born This Way - because we see Finn be all about Rachel. So the episode actually feels good for once. He's all about making her feel good about herself and he just shouts it to the entire choir room that Rachel is beautiful, like a king. Just best moment!

Prom Queen - this and Laryngitis (which I didn't mentioned, but it also has very good Finn moments) are peak jealous!Finn. He always gets jealous when Rachel moves on and that's when he wants her the most. I do love him fighting Jesse (🤢) at prom because how dare he dance with Finn's girl? He did it for all of us when he told Jesse to back off. Oh also he's super sassy to Jesse earlier in the dinner scene.

Funeral - because of the F*inn (🤢) break up. Him going off on Q was everything tbh. Like that bitch was losing it insisting they stay together. It was good to hear him admit that he loves Rachel and that he's connected to her in a way he isn't with anyone else. It was finally him making sense of all his feelings and admitting to himself that he doesn't want some breathy, unfeeling, popular girl, but he wants Rachel and no one else. And I'm very happy that he stuck with this decision up until the end of the series.

New York - this is peak simp!Finn. He does everything in this episode to get Rachel back and I love that about him. We've seen him be all about Rachel before, but in this episode it's turned to 11. He's such a Chad for kissing her at the end of Pretending (that he wrote for them). He invented romance in that moment. And then him getting so excited about the kiss afterwards and saying it's the Superman of kisses and it came with its own cape. I love him too much. No other relationship was as iconic. Omg and him asking Rach out in the library at the end. Omg!!! 😍😍😍😍 that was such a Chad move. This is the Chad!Finn episode!

Purple Piano Project - I might be wrong about this, but I think Finn has a monologue in this one where he talks about his future or something. It's really good.

First Time - because we see Finn's insecurities about the future and him at his lowest when he's not selected by Cooter. I also like how he acts with Rachel when she tries to get him to have sex with her. He is the one saying they should wait and that he wants it to be perfect. Plus I like him forgetting that she's vegetarian/vegan whatever (which she is not because she ate pepperoni pizza in S1E5).

Mash-Off - I love this episode so much. And I love the whole fight between Finn and Santana and how they both bring up their own insecurities in order to tear down the other. We also get to see leader!Finn shine through again and sassy!Finn. He's not just Santana's punching bag anymore. He actually retaliates by telling her "You're scared Brittany won't love you back" which destroys Santana because she is scared of that. But Finn is also scared that Rachel won't love him back, that he won't be enough for her. And it's interesting to see him blurt that out and throw Santana's biggest fear (of Britt not loving her back) at her after she hit him with his biggest fear (of not being able to provide for Rachel and having to ride her coattails for the rest of his life). Also I love Finn and Santana's "are you thinking what I'm thinking?" "Yep. Dodgeball!" Idk how they both thought the same thing. I guess they sliced that brain cell in two and they each got a half for this episode.

Yes/No - Finn's proposal to Rachel is everything. I love it so much and he's so sensitive and romantic in that scene.

Saturday Night Glee-ver - this is a very good Finn-centric episode. We once again see Finn unsure about his future, but realizing that the only thing he's certain about is that he wants to be with Rachel. We rarely see male characters on TV wanting to be husbands as their life aspiration, but that's what Finn wants to be. She's the only thing about his life that makes sense and the only thing in his life that makes him happy so he wants to dedicate himself to her. It's perfect.

Heart - Finn and Rachel's fight is everything. And what's even better is how fast they make up after it. It really shows a lot of maturity on both their parts. It shows how much Finn has grown and how serious he is about Rachel this time around, like we've never seen this side of Finn in s1 or s2 (except the finale of s2)

S4 episode - idk which one it is, but Finn outsmarts Sue and records her saying something to blackmail her so she backs off the Glee club. I loved that a lot. It showed cunning!Finn.

I Do - Finn's speech to Rachel is everything in this episode. He's so sure about them being together. It's just so good. Especially his whole "she loves me, she loves me not" routine in the speech too. S4 gave us some really mature Finn moments about his relationship with Rachel. But also some very immature moments, which were honestly ooc af. But his endgame speech to her was amazing and it really shows that she's still his main priority.

Feud - simply because I love Finn beating the crap out of Brody (🤢). Like idk why Donkey Face even tried swinging at Finn. Finn was like twice his size and used to be in the army after being a quarterback in high school. Sooo like idk just bad decisions on his part. But it did give us the hottest scene on TV. Finn was so hot when he said "stay away from my future wife!" Go off King! 👏

With all that being said, you could get away with understanding Finn by just watching all of S1. Because he kinda goes through his entire arc but not in a very in depth way in that season alone. We see him dealing with thinking he's not enough, to being ashamed of being in Glee, wanting to be more than what it is expected of him, wanting Rachel, wanting to be popular again, realizing that popularity isn't what he wants and that he just wants to be happy with Rachel in the end, finally admitting that he wants Rachel and ending up being happy with her. The other seasons are basically them going in depth on what S1 already presented.